Circle of Life

A training session on Mini

This is a fuzzy pic of Eric the donkey!

Okay, I am trying out a new way of life: simple, relaxed, completely uncomplicated, which for me is really hard because I am by nature an overthinking, silly and ridiculous girl.

On the road to Tocchi there is an abundance of wild berry bushes that no one takes care of. They are coming into bloom and the blackberries are so ripe, sweet and delicious. Every time I go down that road I stop and eat a few. They are usually dusty and hot from the sun, but somehow amazingly refreshing. I spend the next few minutes after passing the bushes picking seeds out of the grooves of my teeth. Tuscan blackberries, wild Tuscan blackberries…they bring great joy to my life, and I can’t even really say why…I just love eating them on that dusty road, on that part of the ride. I never fail to smile in complete enjoyment. I wish I could package the experience and ship it home.

I also wish I could package and send home the experience of donkey’s braying at 3:18 in the morning. Just before leaving for Switzerland, Vittorio brought us a bunch of baby donkeys to train. Well, four – two males, and two females. We have named them Poncho, Ewic, Galena, and Ducky, bringing us to a total of 6 donkeys when you include Rusty and Tonka. Oh donkeys. Donkeys are social, and putting them in individual stalls helps them bond to us, but causes a lot more vocal rukus. Ewic is not your typical donkey, he is a bohemian donkey, complete with a little beard. Our socializing attempts are relatively successful, as in…Claire has been kicked once, and no donkeys have gotten loose. Fortunately we have thirty one pages about how to train a donkey, so we should be experts by the end of the summer. I almost feel inspired of how to become famous…they have dog whisperers, and they have horse whisperers…maybe I could become Tracie the Donkey Whisperer this summer and then sell my fantastic technique!

Remember Giovanni the Pig Chef from 4th of July? Well, I guess he was in need of more pig. The night we got back from Switzerland Giovanni pulled out his gun and pointed it at a mother boar, which was right in front of Agatha and Tosca (two of the horses). Claire yelled “Don’t shoot the…” and before she could finish her sentence there was a loud BANG, the boar was no longer standing. They dragged her away and buried her in our straw in the barn. What?! I know crazy right? So for a day and a half we had a dead boar in the hay barn underneath the straw. I wonder if Disney had any inspiration like this when he had “Circle of Life” written for Lion King.

Since getting back from our vacation, life on the farm is…well, typical La Ripa. Kitchen ants have replaced the flies, lizards now decorate our window screens on random occasions, our shower still leaks, and the stove still randomly leaks gas. Side note: When you light a gas stove after it’s been leaking, it tends to have an explosive type reaction to the match. I am convinced that if I don’t die from the horses, metal in our water, or our stove nearly burning my hand off, then I will certainly die from some other cause, duh! Hay bales still have more personality than I thought possible, providing opportunities to laugh as we try to move them with our hands, feet, and elbows. They are a great playground, a great climbing wall.

In the last two weeks I have had three awesome Mass experiences. First was on August 15 for Holy Day. Mass was being held in Tocchi at their Chiesa (Church) and afterwards Padre showed me some frescoes behind the sacristy that were over 600 years old! They were so super cool to see, a hidden little treasure in the hills of Italy. On August 16, the Palio was going on, so I had to find my own transportation to Mass. Taking a look around, and with Claire’s help, we stepped back in time, back to the days of no cars. I rode to Mass. My sturdy steed carried away to meet my savior! It was fun, and I laughed at it, I enjoyed it, and yet, despite my wishes to live in the horse and carriage days…I am a modern day girl and have a greater appreciation for the speed of cars. Getting there by horse is one hour one way (short way), plus tack up and untack time versus ten minutes by car. Crazy. Yesterday I went to Mass in San Lorenzo at a simple church with only six pews, white stone walls and one small crucifix. I have noticed here in Italy that sometimes the simple churches take my breath away more than the glamorously decorated churches. It is true, less can be more. I walked away from Mass with the Holy Spirit in my heart…a breath of fresh air!

Lessons of the week:
- Italian commercials are so ridiculous they make my ridiculousness look normal
- Through all the laughs, adventures, tears, and fun I think of home a lot and take time to appreciate the blessings in my life. It is true, I am living a dream, an opportunity that I am incredibly blessed to have. I have found many challenges along the way, of how to be more independent, to rely on my own common sense (yes, I do have it!), to persevere in difficult situations when I want to sit on the ground and cry. I have found appreciation for communicating through body language and facial expressions, for ovens, fast food, Target, cars, milkshakes…for luxuries that I do not have here. Wishing that I had more clothes with me, or that I could just go for a ten minute drive to get toothpaste, or being hungry because we can’t cook anything when our stove is broken has given me the opportunity to appreciate my life, to reflect on what life might be like in a poorer country (not just visiting, but living there). To offer the times I don’t feel human or feminine up in prayer for those who don’t even have a choice to shower or brush their hair, or look in a mirror, to embrace their humanity is an honor and opportunity I never expected to have. I guess in being dirty nearly 24/7, and eagerly awaiting a room with no dirt on the floor and clean sheets has increased my appreciation for amenities available to me in America. In Peru, I remember the look on a little girl’s face after we washed her hair (it was matted and looked as if no one had touched in months, I think it had been months, we had to cut out her hair tie). I am starting to get a small understanding of what it might have felt like. Some days I feel so unfeminine wearing the same clothes, dirt tan lines and dirty hair (I can and do wash it, but its gross again within 12 hours). I don’t mind it too much, and it is not miserable, in fact I am lucky to have free rent, to have a mirror, a table, chairs, a bed, couch, running water, refrigerator and now a paycheck and food provided. I am blessed to have a shower available and an opportunity to work internationally. It is often tempting to complain, but in the large scheme of the world, of the economy, I have nothing to complain about. God is with me, I have food, shelter, family, friends, and faith. I panic a lot about my future, the idea of a career, its easy to stress about what will happen when I get home…very easy. But at least I have a home to go home to, friends to laugh with, family to share life with, and a God who won’t lead me astray.
- Yelling out loud will not stop bugs buzzing in your ears on trail rides

Switzerland!!

Switzerland.

AHH! I don’t even know where to START on this blog, on this adventure, on this phenomenal birthday trip. I think it is inevitable, I have a lot to type, this memory document, and story sharing is just going to be long….editing that, it is long…about 5.5 Word Document pages. For those who love my novels…enjoy! Those who have better things to do, sorry to keep you from them! :)

DAY ONE
I woke up at 5:30 am on Thursday August 6 for the start of vacation from vacation. Amazingly enough everything went smoothly as we traveled by train from Siena to Florence to Milan to Brig to Zermatt. It was fun on the train from Siena to Florence to see such a mix of locals and tourists, people talking in French, English, Italian and German, some on the phone, some talking to family members on the other side of the train, and others sitting quietly looking intently at their travel books and maps. In Milan I practically got locked in a bathroom and had to ask a chef to first unlock the door so I could get in, then fiddled with the door to lock it and then get out (which took a good 5 minutes), and then had to ask him to help me relock the door. Silly. Riding the train from Brig, Switzerland to Zermatt, Switzerland gave me such a sense of freedom, of relief and thrill to be in the mountains again. It was a small train, red that had maps of its tracks by the windows that could be rolled down. I had my head out the window the whole way enjoying the cool, brisk, clean mountain air and the incredible scenery as we climbed up and up and up. The ride kind of reminded me of a train ride I took in Alaska that brought us to the Canada border. As the mountains passed us, I really did want to start singing! On the ride we met a Swiss local whose name I can not remember. He took some pictures for us, pointed out the tallest complete mountain in Switzerland (Mt. Dome) and told us the “must go to” bar, which happened to be up the street from our hostel! As we came closer and closer to Zermatt I became very giddy…finally after about twelve hours of traveling we were in our little alpine town!

Getting off the train, the first thing I noticed was the Zermatt train station sign – must take picture. As we walked toward the town I squealed in delight. No cars, fresh air, cute buildings, horse and carriages for transport and tiny electric taxi cars all surrounded by mountains shooting to the sky dotted with huts and flowers. Heading toward the hostel, past the Church, at a point on the bridge over the river a perfect view of my sought out land mark came into view. THE MATTERHORN!!!! (4478m)

Sidenote: Growing up in Southern California, I practically grew up at Disneyland. One of the rides there is the Matterhorn, designed after this very mountain, 1/100 of its real size here is Switzerland. At some point in my youth I decided that I was going to see it in real life…definitely a bucket list item. At some point in my super youth I was terrified to ride the Matterhorn – it was a big roller coaster with monsters in the dark…NO WAY JOSE! My dad used to try and bribe us to ride it with a lollipop. Since those days in my youth I have always wanted to see this landmark of Disneyland (the first part of the park you can see from the freeway) in real life…the real one.

So, as the real one came into view that evening you can imagine the joy and excitement that filled me. I was definitely going to have to find a lollipop and take a picture. We admired it for a while and then continued to find the hostel, appropriately named Matterhorn Hostel. My first impressions: okay, this won’t be so bad…as we were crammed in the tiny front office to check in. We were assigned a room and a bed (I had bed J53). The hostel had its own little restaurant, a (yes a) bathroom on the second floor, some more bathrooms, showers and a lounge in the basement, and a third level with our room – J. All levels are connected by spiral stairs. I think I bonked my head on the ceiling six times going up to and leaving our room from the slanted roof hovering over the top of the stair case. As you walk up the stairs to the room we stayed in the back wall is painted bright blue with yellow polka dot bubble letters spelling CAMP. I had to smile…this hostel had a personality all its own. In our room I had the bottom bunk and a locker. The beds had sheets, one flat pillow and a wool blanket folded on the foot of the bed. From these first glances I decided that a hostel is best described as “dorm meets hotel meets camping.”

After changing out of travel clothes, both of us were starving and decided to go hunting for food. We ran into our train friend along the way (It really is a small town…you can walk from one side to the other in 15 min) and asked where we could find cheap Swiss food. He started laughing and looking at us like we were crazy. At that moment we realized that unintentionally we picked one of the most expensive ski resorts in Europe, hmm…we would have to make do. And we did! We meandered back down toward the train station (there is only one main road) and stopped to look at every menu hoping to find a good deal. Naturally the place we chose was right across from the train station and Italian. Even more ironically, in our desires to escape La Ripa and the flies, the table we sat at was by a flower pot and consequently…flies, which was humorous on one hand and really annoying on the other. I think I laughed more than anything…until the bugger dive bombed into my tomato soup and couldn’t get out. Then I took pictures and smiled. When our tummies were full of pizza, soup and chocolate we wandered around town, drooled over the fun closed shops, got a map of the trails at the hostel and planned our hike for Friday.

DAY TWO
Well, life is pretty unpredictable and Claire and I are both spontaneous. When the alarm clock went off to get an early start, I evaluated my tired body and the purpose of this vacation – rest. After conferring with Claire, a unanimous decision was made – GIRLS DAY OUT! Which in laymen terms means a day of getting dressed up, shopping the irresistible stores and taking silly pictures. And shop we did, after breakfast of course. The thing with starting a girl’s day out early is that all the shops are closed. This was okay with me because it meant once again as I ate I got to experience the beautiful sight of a town coming to life. I bought an apple strudel and sat down on the steps of a closed store. I watched as locals bought pastries at the bakery, bread was delivered to doorsteps, runners jogged up the street, shopkeepers set out goods for the day, and as the streets slowly filled with other tourists. The day heated up to a pleasant 60 degrees and as we meandered through the stores we tried on goofy hats, mused over “funny cows”, gasped at the incredibly overpriced goods and drooled over all the items we wanted and couldn’t afford. “If I had a million dollars…” was a frequent quote. As always, shopping is a very tiring, hunger initiating sport (it takes skill to find good deals) and soon enough we were hunting menus again. We ate at the Pub recommended by our train friend. HOLY MOLEY!!! I have never had a better burger. It was juicy, flavorful, seasoned with thickly sliced bacon, a special sauce, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and it was TRIANGLE shaped! How cool is that?! We shopped some more and I found a totally awesome, unique keychain. Or rather, Claire spotted it, and I bought it. It is a hand carved wooden fondue set. I even got it engraved with my name for free, making it a great addition to my collection! A few hours and some yak fur beanies (so cool right?!) later we spotted a great deal for a fondue meal. Spontaneously we had my dinner celebration early. We ate at a little restaurant called Café du Pont. The fondue choices: Cheese and House Specialty. We got the house specialty. What was the house specialty? Cheese with herbs. HAHA, big difference eh? I have not laughed so hard in a while. We placed our cameras with timers on the table to get pictures with the fondue. Other customers were laughing at us, and we laughed at them laughing at us and laughed at ourselves, at our ridiculousness. I really like the napkin, and so I kept that too, it is sitting in my journal, waiting to be scapbooked as my first Swiss Birthday Fondue napkin (It has a picture of the restaurant, cool!). For dessert we had crepes and watched people. Later the clouds started to roll in and the temperature dropped. We sat on a bench by the river and had a great heart to heart, leaving a smile in my soul. Life doesn’t get more content then that.

DAY THREE – HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!
I woke up trying really hard to comprehend that another year has flown by incredibly fast and reflecting on everything that has happened so fast, from being a nanny in DC to being rector (MC) for a retreat, to graduating college, it has been a very blessed year. I also woke up to gray clouds and drizzling skies. Major bummer and yet kind of nice, I do love rain. So we donned our raincoats and hit the shops again. We started with breakfast at our bakery, and this time I got cheese bread. We walked to a bench on a side road and watched people walk by. Then the coolest thing happened! Not five minutes after we sat down a band came to where we were, set up and started playing some really fun Swiss music! I loved just sitting there listening to them! Then, when we got up to leave we saw a group of men walking around with alpine horns (the tall ones that you see in pictures) and we got to take pictures with them (the horns, not the guys unfortunately, haha)! Shopping was a success and as we ended the day I got to journal for a while and we ate at the hostel for dinner. During that dinner there was an international ski jumping competition on the TV. I have decided that I am going to learn this sport! After dinner I went to the phone booth and the best part of my actual birthday day was getting to talk to my mom, aunt and grandma all at once and having them sing happy birthday in a way that only they can. Thanks Mom!

DAY FOUR - Sunday
I am considering Sunday my actual birthday because it was filled with a lot more excitement, it was the day I wanted to have on Saturday...we climbed the Matterhorn! Way cool right?! I woke up to blue skies and Mass waiting for me. I can somewhat follow along in any Mass because it is the same every where around the world, but this Swiss-German language Mass was the most challenging yet!! And the most beautiful, I did not know that yodeling could sound so graceful!! Part of the reason Mass was challenging was because it had so many tourists wanting to hear the yodel choir and so no one really knew when to sit or stand, or anything…and I was confused because I don’t think it wasn’t quite in line with the Church. Now, I don’t consider myself a theological expert by any sorts, but I have to question…is it ok for a woman to give the homily? I didn’t think so… But all the same, it was Mass, again my heart was at home and it was great to give thanks to God for all of these blessings!

After Mass, Claire and I wandered to find lunch before the start of this parade. And that is where we started our climbing the Matterhorn adventure. Today, or rather, this Sunday happened to be the 40th (or 400th, can’t remember) Folklore Festival of Zermatt. It is held every year in the second weekend of August and we had no idea! It started as a small town parade and now it has evolved into a huge event and has around 10,000 spectators! Because of the parade, some of the tennis courts were turned into a mini fairground with little rides, games, and food booths. Near one of the booths was a sign that said Matterhorn. Intrigued, we went to check it out. In my skirt and chacos, I started the ascent, up and up until we made it to the top…of the little kid scale Matterhorn! Haha. And after a rough climb, our hunt for food continued. Mmm, Swiss brats are AMAZING! So, we had brats and fries while listening to music and watching little kids mill about with toys and candy. I loved it!

After lunch, we headed back toward the train station to watch the parade. On the way we found home made ice cream. Definitely can’t pass that up. So I had home made swiss chocolate ice cream in a hot, fresh waffle cone. HOLY MOLEY again! I practically drooled, it was some of the best ice cream I have had in my life! And so the afternoon consisted of witnessing Swiss alpine culture. Participants of the parade wore clothes from their area of Switzerland and bands played cultural music. We saw flute playing, alpine horn playing (which I got an amazing picture of!), St. Bernard dogs, goat herding, and firemen handing out roses and spraying audience members with water from the hose! Through it all I got to try wine, grapes, swiss cheese and candy so that after the parade I finally got my lollipop/Matterhorn picture!

As if that was not enough excitement, Claire and I decided that we had to spend at least a little time hiking in the mountains. (The main reasons people go to Zermatt is to hike and ski (even in the summer!...too bad its so expensive!)). Changing our clothes, we hit the trail and I must say…it felt so good to have my lungs burn from thin air! We got to one point that gave an awesome view of the Matterhorn, but unfortunately the clouds were rolling in again and covered it. Bummer. So instead of continuing our hike, we plopped our cameras on a rock and twirled in the fields like Maria in the opening scene of Sound of Music. Lying in the grass after falling from dizziness, I sighed a breath of contentment. The grass was so plush, so cool, so fresh! I felt like a little kid, again I wanted to start singing!

As the sun started to set, we sadly had to head back into town, where we had our last Swiss dinner of those amazing triangle burgers from the pub. As we finished dinner the sky started to thunder and lightening flashed through the sky. Quick – we need chocolate! Bummer, all stores are closed now. So I got one more crepe, a chocolate one. And eating a hot chocolate crepe with your fingers as rain falls on your face is really a very fun thing, I would highly recommend it. The night ended in the lounge of the hostel, watching Collateral with other guests, writing postcards and journaling the many thoughts in my head.

DAY FIVE
This day came very begrudgingly. I hate going home after a great weekend. We packed up our bags, said goodbye to the Matterhorn (covered in clouds), had one more pastry from our Bakery and hopped on the train from Zermatt to Brig, then Brig back to Milan, Milan back to Florence, and Florence back to Siena, where we had dinner from the grocery store and waited for Vittorio to pick us up because we didn’t make it back in time to catch the bus.

On the train from Zermatt to Brig, I recognized the feeling I had in myself…it was one of utter sadness to be leaving the mountains. It is a feeling I get every time I leave Copper Mtn. especially after time with family, every time I drive home from a retreat, every time I come home from a day trip to Estes, Winter Park or the like. And as I left the Swiss air, I rejoiced in the excitement that 2009’s ski season is just around the corner. In Brig we got to try free real Swiss cheese, which was soooo good, before finishing our journey back to La Ripa…home sweet home, back to flies, cobwebs, ants, and now even an occasional lizard. And as sad as it was to come home, it was kind of nice to rekindle my spirit in its love/hate relationship with La Ripa. I guess you could say Italy is seeming more and more like home now.

RANDOM Zermatt Thoughts
Okay, I am very impressed if you are interested enough to have read this far…go you! And as this blog is also for my own memory sake, there are a few things that must be noted on from this weekend that I have not had time to journal, that I would like to share.

At the back of the Church there is a Climber’s Cemetery that is open to the public. I believe the name is pretty self explanatory. Walking through it, what surprised me about it was the ages of people, a lot of them were 24 – my new current age, and one of these youngsters was from Denver. Standing before that particular tombstone left me with a heart of sadness, a moment of silence and a moment of gratefulness to be alive and healthy, especially with my sometimes very stupid ideas. I also noticed that a lot of the end dates were in August, which left a lot of room to mourn and pray for the families of these deceased. Maybe it stuck out at me because so many of the days were so close to my birthday. Almost all of the causes were from the Matterhorn, with a few exceptions from other mountains in the general vicinity. I have climbing the Matterhorn on my bucket list, a lot of people do climb it successfully, but I might have to rethink it…very carefully.

Okay, that is depressing, moving on to more random thoughts from this Zermatt trip. My overall hostel experience was a good one! It was kind of weird having to go to the bathroom to change because all rooms were co-ed (super weird!), and stumbling through the dark in our room because some people went to bed at 6 pm was interesting because I am definitely not a graceful person. It seems like the harder I try to be quiet, the more likely I am to make a big banging noise on accident. Haha. I didn’t get to meet as many people as I thought I would, I guess we just had a quiet room. Its okay, I have plenty more opportunities!

Lets see here, after hunting every store 5 times I finally found the perfect Matterhorn key chain which led me to the conclusion that I should be a key chain designer in Zermatt…it is hard to find a great unique one (exception being my awesome wooden fondue one!)! Umm, what else…I love Zermatt and I will go back again someday. I will ski on its slopes and I will hike to one of its huts. Yes, I am going to be the seventy five year old hiker. Swiss Chocolate really is amazing, “funny cows” are hilarious, I want to blow in an alpine horn, and this really was a phenomenal birthday that I will not soon forget.


Lessons of the weekend:
- Swiss alps really make you want to sing “the hills are alive with the sound of music”
- Hostels really are just a place to lay your head at night
- When planning to stay in hostels, bring your own towel (camping type one is probably best)
- After Tuscan heat, cool mountain air is amazingly refreshing
- Italian can seem like your home language after experiencing an extra foreign language like Swiss-German.
- Tre uomo photo – I can communicate in Italian!


And I am sure there are many gramatical errors, and there is just so much more to add to this, and pictures, hopefully soon!

Tutti Bene! (All Good!)

As I think about the 4, days I have left as a 23 year old, I can’t believe how fast another year has gone by since my last birthday! Eating pizza with Erin and Bryce in Old Town Alexandria Virginia seems like barely yesterday! As I think of all the time that has passed since I last blogged, I can not help but smile, and it has been a good week full of more adventures and some good ol’ ridiculous fun.

Every adventure will teach us something if we allow it to and amongst the many adventures I have had out here, the biggest lesson that I am learning relates to everybody, to life, to a *gulp*…career. Are you ready for the silliest lesson of all? You have to make life fun, you have to take the daily chores of ANY job, any activity and bring fun into it. I have known for a long time that I need fun in my life, it is a crucial part of my health; what I have learned this week only confirms that knowledge. I can be the one to make the fun…it doesn’t always have to come from someone else’s creativity (although that is sometimes even more fun!). Whether you are in a big city alone, lost in the woods, in the middle of tim-buck-two with one friend, or at a party with all your closest friends, the only way to make it something special is to create memories. Generally speaking, the best memories are of spontaneous fun. Even at work, it is possible to turn drudgery into memories, great memories. Let me explain:

1. Monastery – Wednesday afternoon we again visited Siena. Today’s mission: clothes, souveniers, gelato, groceries, check email for advice on a big decision, more memories. Mission accomplished. Nothing of drama happened that I can remember except one silly moment. Since the afternoon was more relaxed without any major agenda, Claire and I found a spot in the shade under a tree in the grass outside of San Domenica. I was doodling in my journal, and Claire taking pictures of the pigeons. As we stopped our activities and just rested in the moment we were suddenly taken by surprise in a most unexpected way!! Out of nowhere we both felt cold water falling on us. The sprinklers turned on! I jumped up at a speed I did not know I was capable of. We must have looked pretty silly. And then before we were even out of the grass the sprinklers turned off. Only us…haha. The day went by quickly after that. Thomas picked us up to take us to a Benedictine Monastery called Monte Oliveto Maggiore…way awesome!! It kind of reminded me of some retreat centers in Colorado, filled with pine trees and shaded paths and the whole area had a certain peace about it. We stayed to listen to the monks pray Vespers (I couldn’t really join in due to language barrier and really not knowing the parts…even in English). Even though I could not verbally join in, my heart did, and again I was able to marvel at the universal-ness of the Catholic Church. They carried the same tune that I’ve heard at Vigil Praise (flat tune with small fluctuations per line). How cool is it that so many religious pray the same thing every day?! Prayer and praise is constantly happening throughout the world, especially with the time zones…LOVE IT! After Vespers I prayed some more and then got to meet one of the monks…he was from Africa, so cool!! During that chat I realized that Thomas views himself as my father figure while I am out here, which put a smile in my heart...I am very blessed indeed. On the drive home Claire and I both took tons of pictures and even saw a real life sheep herder with his staff and dog…fun! Oh, side note: The word Torre means tower. The monastery had a restaurant in its tower. Torre is my favorite contrada…at first I thought we were visiting the spot the contrada was named after. But then I learned the translation and well, it was still an awesome tower. :). means Tower. Another side note: While in Siena souvenir shopping, I finally bought a flag…for Torre…so excited to wear it in 2 weeks at the Palio!!
2. Grain fights – Our grain is delivered in the back of a trailer, like a flatbed trailer. Middle of last week we were running low and when you are skimping while feeding to try to make the grain last as long as possible, seeing a full trailer of more grain is a very exciting thing indeed! Frequently on grain delivery day (or hay delivery day for that matter) you can hear either Claire or I yelling across the courtyard…WE HAVE GRAIN!!!!!!! (or HAY if that is the case). Wednesday night, upon returning from the Monastery, we had grain…WOOO! After our fun drive snapping pictures of the country side, Claire looked at me and said, wannna? YES! So out came the camera and into the trailer we climbed. Well, half way in, Claire had the ingenious idea to make grain angels instead of just taking a snapshot. So…I changed the setting to video and we made grain angels. (FYI – that video is hilarious! I hope to share it soon!). After realizing that our attempts were an epic fail, we laughed. Claire became an instigator (not me, for once!) and threw grain on me! I threw some back on her and by the end we were both rolling with laughter, covered in dust and grain sticking to our hair and clothes. Definitely a great night. The next morning…
3. Hay bales – Going along with being camera happy, both Claire and I have been wanting to take a picture with the hay bales in the barn for a long time. Last night (Sunday night) when we got a new load of hay, we decided to do something about this desire. We set up the timer and my battery died. Of course. Plan B. On Claire’s camera we started to have some serious fun. What started off as a climb onto the bale as fast as you can to sit and pose before the timer ends quickly turned into a pitchfork fightin’ face makin’, jumpin’, laughin’ good time. I think I jumped off the hay bales at least five times. Side note: I am terrified to jump off a tiny wall, and suddenly after one spontaneous adrenaline sparked leap off the bale I have found that I really enjoy flying through the air from heights…even if my landings are a little rough. Miraculously, I sustained zero serious injuries. To say the least, we now have about fifty pictures on the bales…yay!
4. Rain ride – During all this fun it has been ferociously, nearly unbearably hot. Imagine this heat and then waking up one morning and looking into the sky to find giant thunderheads and a cool breeze in the air after four weeks of this intense melting heat. Nice change eh? And then…as you start your morning chores you hear that first rumble. Sigh of contentment. That is how this morning (Monday) started for me. After feeding, we went for a ride with the rolling dark clouds threatening to let loose, hoping to get wet. Mission accomplished. The sky poured buckets on us and smiling from ear to ear we rode down the road. As we walked on the tree covered path I looked ahead to the mountains now covered with clouds and watched the rain fall, feeling the water seep into my jeans, drip off my helmet, into my eyes and roll down my face. I heard the patter of it finding its way to the ground through the trees and marveled at the freshness of the air. When we got off the main road and onto our favorite trail, we cantered. I love this trail anyways, but cantering/galloping with water pelting your face, the drops falling from your eyelashes and the sound of the rain drowning out the pounding of hooves all the while ducking under low branches and watching the green bushes flash by you as you run over the grass covered trail is a whole other ball game. I could not stop smiling. PRAISE GOD! After an hour and a half I was a drowned rat, content as could be, even on the cold side for once and completely thrilled that I chose to enjoy the rain in person and not from behind a window.

So…moral of the story? Bring fun into everything you do!! I mean really…what is more fun then riding horses in the rain, in the mountains, in Italy, more fun then making grain angels or jumping off of giant round hay bales?! I guess my adventurous side is bound to find something…sky diving? Swimming with great white sharks? Learning to jump on skiis? Walking the streets of Africa? Feeding wild giraffes? Who knows...maybe something will happen this weekend…because my 24th birthday is in FOUR days! Yikes. Thankfully Vittorio is letting us take a long weekend to go travel. After much searching for the perfect destination the last few weeks, it has been found. I am going to see the real life Matterhorn!!! I can not wait! I am sure that this weekend is bound to be full of adventures because well, I am me...ridiculous, spontaneous, and crazy…and I love living a great story. It will be my first time staying in a hostel, and that is bound to have some story in itself!

As always, there is so much more that I am sure I have forgotten, so much more I wish I could put into words, and so much more that would draw this entry out into a novel. (Although I bet by now all these blogs could be a novel…hmmm). Oh yeah, more for my own memory sake…this week we also galloped through a field of cows! It was fantastic going face to face with a bull on a horse…I was a little nervous, but my trusty horse kept me safe. . For those of you who have lives to maintain while supporting me out here by reading these stories, I am going to end it here…the important events of the week have been shared. So…as my future is seemingly nothing to be afraid of (which I give full rights to myself now to allow that to change as time goes on…), as I get ready to celebrate another fantastic year of life, and as I count my blessing and the adventures I have been blessed to have so far, all I can say about life is TUTTI BENE!

Lessons learned…some of which I apparently needed to learn again, haha…noted by a *:
- MAKE LIFE FUN!
- *Church is my universal/global home
- Cows are fun, especially in fields…I still want to go cow tipping
- Food in Siena is much better off the beaten track…never buy food in any city at a restaurant near a tourist attraction…overpriced, small serving, mediocre quality.
- *It will still rain whenever you are in dire need of doing laundry
- *Never wait until all your clothes are dirty to do laundry…always have a spare outfit for when you get drenched in the rain and all your clothes are wet in the washer…and when you don’t have that spare outfit, smile about being wet all day due to your lack of thinking ahead, haha
- Flip flops are AWESOME!! (both in the mail and to keep your feet clean)
- You will never really get used to early alarm clocks
- I still LOVE rain (almost as much here in the summer as snow in Colorado!)
- Spontaneous grain wars are a blast
- Custom timers on cameras are a great invention!